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1. Love this quote from Banks’ essay: “Freedom looks like picking your jail cell—or your ride sharing app, or your smartphone, or over-priced health care—not choosing from a much larger set of more politically relevant life choices.”

   • I’ve been a fan of his since reading his essay on what he calls NPR’s “epistemology problem:” https://thenewinquiry.com/podcast-out/

2. re “Utopian Anarchist” and A.I. i wanted to piggy-back off of my last posting here,
   https://rootsimple.wpengine.com/2018/06/luddites-moonshot-dealing-with-leafy-green-pests/#comment-527509

   on board wargames, community building and just being a Luddite at heart off-line/off-grid.

   This one article (a review of 3 games really) deals with affect. Starting off with the game Twister by Milton Bradley as metaphor to what affect is in game play the intertwining of both physical and abstract.

   here’s the article: http://analoggamestudies.org/2016/05/affective-networks-at-play-catan-coin-and-the-quiet-year/

   It’s a long read but well worth it, IMHO. After Twister, the reviewer goes on to compare the 3 games:

   1) Settlers of CATAN: which is now ubiquitous found in Target and Walmart, some might even be found at half price now in Toys R Us. Essentially the tug and pull of community building as game.

   2) COIN series games: that’s COIN for counter-insurgency , basically about keeping a community/nation together as it tugs and pulls itself apart.

   3) the Quiet Year: billed as a map making game here’s more…

   “The Quiet Year is a map game. You define the struggles of a post-apocalyptic community, and attempt to build something good within their quiet year. Every decision and every action is set against a backdrop of dwindling time and rising concern.

   The game is played using a deck of cards – each of the 52 cards corresponds to a week during the quiet year. Each card triggers certain events – bringing bad news, good omens, project delays and sudden changes in luck. At the end of the quiet year, the Frost Shepherds will come, ending the game.” https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year

   but unlike CATAN and COIN games, you’re now actually having to get into the nitty-gritty of affecting each other, for common good, and i guess the point of the game is how that common good is usually misinterpreted, re-interpreted, etc. etc.

   “For a long time, we were at war with The Jackals. But now, we’ve driven them off, and we have this – a year of relative peace. One quiet year, with which to build our community up and learn once again how to work together. Come Winter, the Frost Shepherds will arrive and we might not survive beyond that. But we don’t know about that yet. What we know is that right now, in this moment, there is an opportunity to build something.”

   For Elon Musk , the Jackals are the folks who’ve bullied him, are working against him, opposite his worldview, etc. He’s making something that will replace or undermine them the Jackals. If he succeeds, he will drive the Jackals off , the question is … are the Frost Shepherds good or bad, threat or salvation?

   Who knows, the Frost Shepherds are never defined in the Quiet Year, but it’s what we do in the absence of the Jackals that’s more important, what is community and all those other important questions— this i’m sure is a Luddite moonshot.

3. Erik – in these Saturday tweets articles you consistently turn up content that takes me in new directions, I love the Culture and Musk pieces. Thanks!

   • Thank you–miss seeing you here in LA. Hope you are well. David Banks’ other writing and Twitter musings are well worth following. He’s an interesting writer.

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